Thursday, November 22, 2012

Theabove articledescribes the difficult decisions that more and more physicians are forced to make to abandon private practice and take a salaried position with a hospital - and how this affects your health care, and the cost of care in general:

"Dr. Thomas Lewandowski, a Wisconsin cardiologist, had a tough choice to make in 2010 after the federal government yet again reduced the payments he received for treating Medicare patients: He could fire half his staff to keep his practice open, or sell it to a local hospital. He sold, becoming one of more than 6,000 employees at ThedaCare, which runs five hospitals and numerous clinics in the northeastern part of the state. Lewandowski is among thousands of once-independent doctors who are joining with hospital chains to stay afloat, a trend that threatens to raise the price of health care even as the federal government strains to keep a lid on costs."

The above article does a nice job explaining the tremendous short-term health care cost -inflating consequence and other adverse consequences of driving former private practice physicians into hospital employee status. With it, the delivery of all health care services is forced into the setting of expensive high-overhead, high-tech, glossy, magnificent glass - and steel corporate settings. By that standard, ObamaCare would seem not to make sense and to produce the opposite effect of its promise of making health care "affordable". Of course, it does- but n reality, ObamaCare is not about affordability or health care- it's about control. First step: Raise administrative costs and hassles and drop reimbursements to force all previously private, independent physicians into salaried employee status- where they seek refuge for a stable salary from the government onslaught. Benefit: they are now under the control of a couple hundred giant hospital corporations - the new "Accountable Care Organizations" (and thus hospital administrators), which can then be much more easily controlled by the federal government.Next step: Bundled lump sum payments from Medicare / Medicaid - and federally organized state-wide insurance monopoly exchanges- to hospitals and their employed, salaried doctors- now run as "Accountable Care Organizations"- to force employed doctors to ration out medical services to patients under financial or administrative pressure or threat - from hospitals- under threat or risk of their own financial self- sacrifice or self-destruction or professional self-destruction/ job loss by their powerful ACO employer.Next step: Structure all private and employer-provided health insurance in such a way that insurance premiums will be driven progressively higher, and simultaneously institute much less expensive fines. This provides a double incentive for individuals and employers to forgo buying - or just dump- their own private coverage and for businesses to stop providing employee health coverage and dump their employees into the federally -run, state-labelled insurance monopoly exchanges.As premiums rise, the private insurers which were jumping up and down with delight when ObamaCare was passed thinking they were now guaranteed massive profits by all the people and businesses now *forced* to buy their products- will progressively fail financially and dump their newly uninsured onto the government exchanges and directed onto the government Medicaid roles. Presto: single payer government run health care. One payer- the US government- sets all the rules and the payments.Next step: Let the blood-letting and cost cutting begin. Across the board cuts to all hospitals/ ACO's and their employed doctors while simultaneously and progressively squeezing more and more work for them for less pay like blood like a stone- far worse than the current situation. Next step: Meltdown across the system- Physicians and nurses will resign from the employed status under slave labor conditions in beautiful glass and steel hospital structures (don't worry - the physical plant will rapidly deteriorate as number of support staff get cut) , with diminishing numbers of demoralized, overworked, underpaid medical staff with lower and lower staff to patient ratios, higher stress and ever expanding hours and responsibilities with prison-like working conditions. Mass exodus- back into fee for service system or out of medicine entirely for self-preservation. All of this , of course, will be happening simultaneously over the next several years- rather than in discrete steps - and all is brought to you by your federal government- who "cares' about your health care....

Thursday, November 15, 2012

Michael Cannon of the Cato Institute, Byron Schlomach and Nick Dranias of the Goldwater Institute, and Twila Brase expose the pitfalls of having the state set up an Obamacare exchange and the advantages of not doing so. This webinar was presented to elected officials in Tennessee and concerned citizens.Michael F. Cannon is the Cato Institute’s director of health policy studies. Previously, he served as a domestic policy analyst for the U.S. Senate Republican Policy Committee.Dr. Byron Schlomach is an economist and works as the Director of the Center for Economic Prosperity at the Goldwater Institute. He has 15 years of experience working in and around state government.Nick Dranias, is an attorney and the director of the Joseph and Dorothy Moller Center for Constitutional Government at the Phoenix, AZ think tank the Goldwater Institute.Twila Brase, RN, is the founder and President of the Citizens’ Council for Health Freedom, a free-market resource for designing the future of health care.Ralph Weber of MediBid.com moderated this panel discussionWATCH THE VIDEO HERE:Why States Should Resist ObamaCare and Refuse to Setup Exchanges | MediBlog

Please contact your governor ASAP, asking him or her NOT to commit to any kind of Obamacare health insurance exchange. Even if your state has already declared its intention, please voice your opposition before Friday.

15 REASONS: Oppose Obamaʼs Health Insurance Exchanges1. Exchanges are Federal Takeover Centers, not marketplaces. The federal government controls the health plans and the benefits—and oversees patient care. Exchanges will also become single-seller bureaucracies where only government- approved health plans are sold and no real “market” exists. It is expected that all people in the future will be required to buy insurance from the Exchange. (see #5)2. States will lose. State-run exchanges will hide the federal takeover; enable federal access to state-held data on citizens, patients and providers; and shift the annual$10 million - $100 million cost of operating the exchange to State taxpayers.3. State-run Exchanges are not required. That would be commandeering of the state by the federal government. Obama’s health care law acknowledges this fact by having a fallback plan for creation of a Federal Exchange—but no money to do it. They’ve asked for ~$750 million, but Congress has thus far refused.4. All Exchanges are Federal Exchanges. State-run Exchanges must follow the federal law and all federal rules. They are required to report annually to the U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS) and are under control of HHS.5. State-run Exchanges are part of a National Exchange. State exchanges are 50 state-named website portals of a national system. They are extensions of the federal government into each state through the “Federal Data Services Hub,” which will receive and share private data. Data entered online to buy insurance is sent for verification through the Federal Data Services Hub (“Hub”) to at leastfive federal agencies, and compared with myriad state databases and data systemsmade accessible to the Hub by state government.6. The Exchange is a national registration and enforcement tool. The National Exchange (with 50 website portals) will register the insurance status of every citizen and allow the IRS to enforce the penalty-tax for refusing to buy health insurance. The purpose is universal coverage — national health care. Registration takes place through purchase of insurance or online registration of an exemption.7. The Exchange will create an unprecedented tracking system. Whether they pay taxes to the Federal government or not, everyone must annually register with the IRS either on their own through the Exchange or through their employer. State governments are already considering how to “pre-populate” the exchange using other databases such as state taxpayers, voting registration, and vital statistics.8. The Exchange will enable Obamacare fines. Employers face significant fines if even one of their employees buys health insurance on a state-based Exchange.,,,

Tuesday, November 13, 2012

We Stand FIRM: Hsieh Forbes OpEd: Protect Yourself Against Obamacare."The 11/13/2012 Forbes has published Dr. Paul Hsieh's latest OpEd: "5 Ways To Protect Yourself Against Obamacare".In it, he discusses 5 practical strategies ordinary Americans should consider now, even as the fight for health care freedom continues. They include:1) Get a good primary care doctor, if you haven't already done so.2) Use a Health Savings Account (HSA).3) Consider a concierge or "direct pay" physician.4) Consider medical tourism, when appropriate.5) Help your doctor work on your behalf.For more details, see the full text of "5 Ways To Protect Yourself Against Obamacare".

Sunday, November 11, 2012

Lest we lose sight of the grave international repercussions of the re-election of our treasonous, America -hating, UN -appeasing, Narcissist-in-Chief... as Caroline Glick reports in the National Review, the winning party in the US election seems to be the Islamist party:National Review article - The Party of Victory""Next to the American people themselves, Israel is no doubt the biggest immediate loser in the U.S. presidential election. President Obama's foreign policy is predicated on the false notion that the U.S. and Israel themselves are the principal causes of the Islamic world's antipathy toward them. Consequently, Obama has cultivated the anti-American, genocidally anti-Jewish Muslim Brotherhood and facilitated the Brotherhood's takeover of Egypt and Tunisia and its gains in strength throughout the Middle East. In addition, Obama has appeased Iran's Islamist regime and has enabled it to reach the cusp of nuclear capability.. . ."The jihadist assault on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi must be viewed as a sign of things to come, just as al-Qaeda's 1998 bombings of the U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania and the 2000 bombing of the U.S.S. Cole were precursors of the 9/11 attack on the U.S. mainland. Obama is empowering the United States' worst enemies in the Sunni and Shiite Muslim worlds alike. Thereby emboldened, they place America at increased risk."

Saturday, November 10, 2012

Far from giving up, the American Association of Physicians & Surgeons has re-doubled its efforts in the fight against ObamaCare and today released FREE of charge, the video, audio, and other resources from all 24 talks at last month's AAPS 69th Annual Meeting.

You will find below, links to presentations containing important ideas, strategies, and practical tools that will help win this fight. Please watch, listen, and feel free to widely share these talks.

"The battle to stop the attacks on patients and their physicians must and will press on, yet it is time to reexamine the strategies employed in the fight.

Yesterday's election results portray a country where too many of our fellow Americans have been deceived by politicians into believing that only Washington can "fix" their problems. Patients who want individualized high-quality care, and the physicians who want to provide it to them, must avoid this mindset. Now more than ever the responsibility to stop the subjugation of medical care by government and insurance company bureaucrats lies directly in the hands of individual patients and individual physicians.

Patients and physicians must stand together and refuse to participate in the destruction of American medicine. AAPS will stand beside you in this fight to provide the information, tools, and support needed to succeed. Make no mistake, AAPS will continue and intensify our efforts in the political and legal arenas on both state and national levels; however, the heavy lifting is going to have to be accomplished by the hard work and determination of American patients and physicians.

Stay tuned for more information about ongoing and upcoming AAPS initiatives to carry forward this critical mission to save American medicine.

In the meantime, today we have released FREE of charge, the video, audio, and other resources from all 24 talks at last month's AAPS 69th Annual Meeting. You will find below, links to presentations containing important ideas, strategies, and practical tools that will help win this fight. Please watch, listen, and feel free to widely share these talks."

"...Cconsumers should consider the kind of health insurance that they would get under the President’s plan.So far, President Obama is withholding the final set of regulations that describe just what health benefits the Obamacare plans will deliver. He may be waiting until after the election. But there’s enough detail already in the law to make decent estimates.

The answer turns out to get a lot worse, the closer one looks. There’s good reason to believe that in short order, the health plans sold in Obamacare’s heavily regulated, state-based insurance exchanges will degrade into something akin to today’s Medicaid managed care plans...If a lot of consumers who presently get their health coverage at work are dumped into these state exchanges (as many independent analysts predict), then tens of millions of Americans could find that they’re worse off under the new law and that their health benefits have been substantially devalued.....The President’s mislabeled “Affordable Care” Act is structured in a way to almost guarantee that the quality of the health coverage offered in the exchanges must erode over time..... by benchmarking the Obamacare plans off a standard set of benefits, the only incentive plans have is to drive down their premiums, mostly by driving down what they pay to providers, just like Medicaid operates. ..That means clamping down on things such as the quality of networks and providers..."State Update from Vermont viaVermonters For Health Care Freedom"In VT, not only have we set up an exchange, but we are FORCING individuals and small businesses under 50 employees into the exchange to purchase their insurance. VT is the only state to do this and DC recently followed us! I think the states that do not set up the exchanges will be magnets for small businesses. The small businesses in VT forced into the exchange will see their premiums soar for heavily regulated insurance in 2014. We do not have much individual freedom and liberty in VT! Keep up the fight in PA! Keep your individual freedom and liberty that we do not seem to have in VT!The reason VT is forcing individuals and businesses into the exchange is that they are hoping for businesses to "dump" their employees in the exchange, so that they can obtain their federal subsidies to help fund VT"s "single payer"! We passed single payer in VT in 2010 without saying how to fund it in this already highly taxed state with the lowest GDP per worker (recent Fraser Institute study)!Plus the insurance in the exchange may be more like Medicaid....More here:The Closer One Looks At Obamacare, The More It Looks Like Medicaid

Friday, November 9, 2012

Now that the election is over- by hook, or by crook- ObamaCare really *is* the law of the land. The results will, in fact, be a disaster for both doctors and patients, but no need to take my word for it. You will see for yourself coming years. In the meantime, here's one doctor's very helpful advice on how to limit the personal damages to the extent possible:How to Protect Yourself Against ObamaCare

"On March 23, 2010, President Barack Obama signed into law the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (known colloquially as “ObamaCare”), declaring that the law would enshrine “the core principle that everybody should have some basic security when it comes to their health care.”1 But, for reasons I have elaboratedin previous articles in TOS, far from establishing security regarding Americans’ health care, this new law will make quality health care harder to come by and more expensive for everyone. Unfortunately, until our politicians rediscover the principle of individual rights, choose to uphold it, and reverse this monstrosity of a law, we Americans are stuck with it and will have to cope the best we can.

So, what can you do in this new era of “change” to preserve your access to quality health care?

Although it is impossible to avoid the harmful effects of ObamaCare entirely, if you plan wisely and act accordingly you can minimize its effects on you and maximize your chances of receiving quality health care in the future. Toward that end, I offer the following four strategies, two of which pertain directly to your personal arrangements for health care, and two of which pertain to intellectual and political activism. . . ."

By the way.... one of the very hard lessons that Americans will learn in the next several years is this: Contrary to what you have been conditioned to buy into by the soaring rhetorical flourishes of your grandiloquent, magnanimous political Dear Leader, there is no such thing as "free".

Please- get that out of your vocabulary and out of your mind. There is no such thing as a "free lunch" or "free health care".

Voting your government the power to give you unearned "free stuff"- provided by the unrewarded work of some, or paid for by the confiscated money or property *earned* by others - does not make it "free". In fact, it comes at a huge price. By granting your government the power to violate the individual rights of *some*- to their own life, liberty, property and pursuit of happiness, you empower you thereby grant government the unlimited power to violate the individual rights of all - yours and everyone's - as well as your freedom.By putting control of your money and of all health care dollars into the hands of federal bureaucrats in the form of "socially collectivized public resources", you have now given them total control over your health care decisions, and completely disempowered yourself -and your doctor- to participate in and decide your own individual medical care. Now, everything I just said above about "free" notwithstanding, the above "piece of my mind" was completely "free"- albeit at the *cost* of your time. However, the rest of the actual published article- and the valuable doctor's advice it contains- is not - since a lot of time, money and intellectual effort went into its creation and publication. It is ,however, well worth the mere pittance charged. It is, in fact, some of the best medical advice that your own money is still able to buy under ObamaCare- a system where you will soon discover that the "right" to "free" health care promised to you by a "benevolent" federal government- and paid for by your fellow man - is quite different from the ability to actually obtain medical advice and medical services when you need them. To stand in line ( ...you'll need get used to this...) to purchase the rest of the article, please go HERE.

Now that the election is over- by hook, or by crook- ObamaCare really *is* the law of the land. The results will, in fact, be a disaster for both doctors and patients, but no need to take my word for it. You will see for yourself coming years. In the meantime, here's one doctor's very helpful advice on how to limit the personal damages to the extent possible:How to Protect Yourself Against ObamaCare

"On March 23, 2010, President Barack Obama signed into law the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (known colloquially as “ObamaCare”), declaring that the law would enshrine “the core principle that everybody should have some basic security when it comes to their health care.”1 But, for reasons I have elaboratedin previous articles in TOS, far from establishing security regarding Americans’ health care, this new law will make quality health care harder to come by and more expensive for everyone. Unfortunately, until our politicians rediscover the principle of individual rights, choose to uphold it, and reverse this monstrosity of a law, we Americans are stuck with it and will have to cope the best we can.

So, what can you do in this new era of “change” to preserve your access to quality health care?

Although it is impossible to avoid the harmful effects of ObamaCare entirely, if you plan wisely and act accordingly you can minimize its effects on you and maximize your chances of receiving quality health care in the future. Toward that end, I offer the following four strategies, two of which pertain directly to your personal arrangements for health care, and two of which pertain to intellectual and political activism. . . ."

By the way.... one of the very hard lessons that Americans will learn in the next several years is this: Contrary to what you have been conditioned to buy into by the soaring rhetorical flourishes of your grandiloquent, magnanimous political Dear Leader, there is no such thing as "free".

Please- get that out of your vocabulary and out of your mind. There is no such thing as a "free lunch" or "free health care".

Voting your government the power to give you unearned "free stuff"- provided by the unrewarded work of some, or paid for by the confiscated money or property *earned* by others - does not make it "free". In fact, it comes at a huge price. By granting your government the power to violate the individual rights of *some*- to their own life, liberty, property and pursuit of happiness, you empower you thereby grant government the unlimited power to violate the individual rights of all - yours and everyone's - as well as your freedom.By putting control of your money and of all health care dollars into the hands of federal bureaucrats in the form of "socially collectivized public resources", you have now given them total control over your health care decisions, and completely disempowered yourself -and your doctor- to participate in and decide your own individual medical care. Now, everything I just said above about "free" notwithstanding, the above "piece of my mind" was completely "free"- albeit at the *cost* of your time. However, the rest of the actual published article- and the valuable doctor's advice it contains- is not - since a lot of time, money and intellectual effort went into its creation and publication. It is ,however, well worth the mere pittance charged. It is, in fact, some of the best medical advice that your own money is still able to buy under ObamaCare- a system where you will soon discover that the "right" to "free" health care promised to you by a "benevolent" federal government- and paid for by your fellow man - is quite different from the ability to actually obtain medical advice and medical services when you need them. To stand in line ( ...you'll need get used to this...) to purchase the rest of the article, please go HERE.

We Stand FIRM: Don't Give Up The Ship: "Joshua Lipana (free-market advocate and cancer survivor) recently asked both Dr. Beth Haynes and myself about the recent election on his blog, "Liberty Against Cancer".

" It means that ObamaCare will be the law of the land, with no realistic chance of repeal. We’ll see an erosion in the quality and availability of health care in America over time, although it’s difficult to know yet how long it will take.

I personally predict that the failure of ObamaCare cost control will lead to calls for a government “single-payer” system by the end of Obama’s second term. If this goes through, then the US system will end up some variant of Canada’s or the UK’s. Unless this trend is reversed, it will not end well for either American patients or American doctors...."

Thursday, November 8, 2012

Will My Doctor Still Care if I Point a Gun at Him? | MediBlog"...[I]magine this on a large scale. Angry mobs of folks waiving their Obamacare “insurance” cards in the street demanding their free health care outside a closed and vacant doctor’s office. This supposed “right” to health care, cannot undo human nature and the delicate and myriad market forces at work to ensure that all parties in a transaction are willing participants. If government points its guns at the doctors to make them participate, I maintain that the “healthcare” that is delivered under these conditions will be a different variety than the mobs expected. In fact, it won’t be healthcare at all. I don’t know what it will be, but it won’t be healthcare.

Many physicians will retire soon. Many sooner than they had planned. Some will quit and do other things. This secession from an increasingly government-controlled enterprise is predictable I think. Some will continue to practice against their will. The shortage in the supply of physicians relative to an increasing demand for their services will represent an opportunity for those waiting in long lines to re-think what it is, exactly, they have a “right” to.

I suppose I’m suggesting that the last person you want to trust your life to is one at whom you are pointing a gun. Perhaps the fear that will result from the care rendered by the “coerced” doctors will inspire a new “wellness.” Staying as far away as you possibly can from a “coerced” doctor’s office may be the most self-preserving move you can make in the near future."

In resistance to the tyrannical oppression of America's preening Monarch, King Obama I, and the imminent destruction of the medical profession and the doctor-patient relationship by legions of federal bureaucratic over-lords under ObamaCare, Dr. Richard Amerling of the American Association of Physicians and Surgeonshas eloquently penned the Physicians’ Declaration of Independence :"When in the Course of Human Events, it becomes necessary for one Profession to dissolve the Financial Arrangements which have connected them with Medicare, Medicaid, assorted Health Maintenance Organizations, and diverse Third Party Payers and to assume among the other Professions of the Earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of Mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident: that the Physician’s primary responsibility is toward the Patient; that to assure the sanctity of this relationship, payment for service should be decided between Physician and Patient, and that, as in all transactions in a free society, this payment be mutually agreeable. Only such a Financial Arrangement will guarantee the highest level of Commitment and Service of the Physician to the Patient, restrain Outside Influence on Decision-Making, and assure that personal information be kept confidential.

The Financial Arrangements between Physicians and the Third Parties have become so destructive to the Patient-Physician relationship, and to the Medical Profession as a whole, that it is the Right, and Obligation, of the Members of the Profession to abolish them. Prudence will dictate that arrangements long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience has shown, that Physicians are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their Right; it is their Duty, to throw off such arrangements, and to provide new Guards for their future security.

Such has been the patient sufferance of this Profession; and such is now the necessity that constrains them to alter their former Financial Arrangements. The history of the present system is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct effect the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over the Medical Profession. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world..."

"Last night I crawled into bed with my little girl, wrapped my arms tightly around her and wept for hours while she slept.I wept for the loss of a country that was once the envy of the world—a republic that stood for freedom, opportunity, justice, and individual rights protected by the rule of law—its fearless and indivisible people known for their fierce individualism, exceptionalism, unwavering patriotism, and pride in their nation.I wept for the degradation of the U.S. Declaration of Independence and Constitution, the greatest documents ever written, and the brilliant men who drafted them in attempts to secure our liberties by the rule of law. It was this rule of law that was the foundation for our republic, which became the greatest, most advanced nation the world has ever known, simply because government was limited and men were free.I wept for the dreams and hopes of immigrants who risked their lives to escape the evils of communism and totalitarianism around the globe for the promise of freedom and opportunity in America. They are among the minority who truly understand the impact and future implications of yesterday’s election.I wept for the heroes in uniform who bravely fought and died so that we could enjoy the liberties that have been the envy of every thinking man around the world, but that we have lazily come to take for granted. Thousands of these heroes’ voices were (purposely, in my opinion) silenced in this election...."Please read the entire essay here.http://www.theobjectivestandard.com/blog/index.php

Wednesday, November 7, 2012

A John Galt Speech For Physicians:Dear America,You made your choice. You determined that it is in your best interest to surrender power and control over your health care decisions - and deliver America's physicians - into the hands of medical bureaucrats in Washington DC. In coming years, you will- of course- begin to see clearly the consequences of this choice. I suspect that it will not be very long before you will experience a bad case of buyers' remorse.As you celebrate the attainment of your aspirations for government security over individual responsibility, individual freedom, personal choice and self-determination, be aware that those whose freedoms you have now destroyed may not be as eager to become unwilling beasts of burden and sacrificial victims to serve your life- at their own expense. You will soon discover that there are some who do no believe that they were put on this earth to *serve you*. Rather, they too, believe that they have an equal right to their own lives, their own liberty, their own property and to the pursuit of their own values and happiness in this world. The medical profession is in fact, a noble profession, where doctors defer gratification for many years to invest tremendous amounts of time, energy and personal resources in the attainment of life saving and life -preserving skills. Note, here, the use of the word "invest"- rather than "sacrifice"- since the majority of us do so in the rational expectation of reaping personal rewards from entering into- and continuing to practice in- the profession and of bettering our own lives- not just yours. The vast majority choose medicine not out of some sort of misguided streak of masochism or monk-like rejection of a personal life in the real world to seek rewards in some kind of after-life. Rather, they choose it for the personal and professional satisfaction they derive from the independent exercise of their own reasoning minds and scientific skills and abilities- in the hope and expectation to better their *own* lives and earn a satisfying living practicing their trade. For this reason, from those who resent being voted into unchosen government - enforced involuntary servitude to their fellow man, do not be surprised to hear some variation of the below principled statement of self-assertion and self-preservation in coming years, articulated here by Dr. Rich Fogoros:(In the interest of disclosure, Dr. Rich does indicate that he did borrow liberally in the first 3 paragraphs from the original John Galt speech in Atlas Shrugged. The rest of this eloquent piece, however, is his own.) A John Galt Speech For Physicians:“You demand to know what has happened to us, the physicians you thought you controlled. You have cried that our sins are destroying the world and you have cursed us for our unwillingness to practice the virtues you demanded. Since virtue, to you, consists of sacrifice, you have demanded more sacrifices at every turn. You have sacrificed all those evils which you held as the cause of your plight. You have sacrificed justice to mercy. You have sacrificed independence to unity. You have sacrificed wealth to need. You have sacrificed self-esteem to self-denial. You have sacrificed happiness to duty.

“While you were dragging us to your sacrificial altars, we physicians who value justice, independence, reason, and self-esteem – we finally came to see the nature of the game you were playing, which we had previously been too innocently generous to grasp. And we have chosen to play no longer.

“All the physicians who have vanished from your system, the doctors you hated, yet dreaded to lose, we are gone from you. Do not cry that it is our duty to serve you. We do not recognize such duty. Do not cry that you need us. We do not consider your need a claim. Do not cry that you own us. You don’t. Do not beg us to return. We are making our own way, apart from you.

“In your cynical attempt to control the healthcare system, you have coerced us – with your threats to our livelihood, threats of massive fines, threats of jail – to abandon our sacred obligation to our patients. Society must come first, you say.

The needs of the collective are paramount, you insist. We must do what the experts tell us to do, you demand. And in the process you have destroyed the doctor-patient relationship which is the backbone of our profession. You have reduced physicians to ciphers, to puppets. And you have reduced our patients – the living, loving, hoping, striving people who come to us, who place their trust in us and their lives in our hands – to interchangeable members of a vast herd. You have demanded that we guard society’s interests, and abandon our sick to their own devices in your cruel and parsimonious healthcare system.

“Your process is now firmly established. Your methods have been legislated by Congress, embodied in volumes of rules, regulations and “guidelines” (strictly and ruthlessly enforced), upheld by the courts, and finally (and most tellingly) sanctioned as being entirely “ethical” by your allies, the leadership of our own professional organizations. You have made the healthcare system untenable for doctors who value true medical ethics.

“You have placed us into a position where we must either resign ourselves to an unethical, demeaning, health-destroying style of practice, or get out. We have gotten out.

“We have gotten out. We have left your Program. We refuse to sacrifice ourselves for you any longer. We will not sacrifice our livelihoods, our morals, our independence, our minds, or our patients for your bastardized idea of virtue.

“We will practice medicine in the only manner that still permits us to behave ethically toward our patients, in the only way that we can honor the true doctor-patient relationship, in the only way we can legitimately regain the title of professional. We have chosen to be paid directly by the people to whom we provide our services, by the people to whom we dedicate ourselves as professionals. We have chosen to cut you out...."

"On Sunday, a group of medical doctors in various fields of specialization, paid to

publish an open letter to their patients. The full page ad ran in the Philadelphia Inquirer.

The 41 doctors who signed their names to the document are a little different from the retired military pros who spoke out against President Obama. In this case, all of the people on the list are currently working in the medical field and have offered their advice to patients.

The idea for this unusual advocacy came after a small group of healthcare professionals decided to stand up against the “Affordable Care Act” (Obamacare). They created a group called “Docs4Patient Care.”

To clarify the above , it should be noted that the letter itself was produced and funded independently by the 41 practicing physicians in PA and NJ who signed it. Some of the signatories are members of Docs4PatientCare, a national organization founded originally in Georgia by pediatric urologist, Dr. Hal Scherz. More information on Docs4PatientCare here.